Indonesia-African forum to attract FDIs as trade with Nigeria hits $2.5b

The International Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Lagos has stated that the trade volume between Nigeria and Indonesia hit over $2.5 billion in 2016.

The Director, ITPC, Bagus Wicaksena, noted the trade volume represents the second largest the Indonesian government traded with the continent. He stated that the total volume of trade between Indonesia and Africa stood at $7.6 billion in 2016.

Wicaksena while announcing the Indonesian-African forum scheduled to hold on 10-11 of April in Bali, Indonesia tagged “Sustainable trade and investment cooperation”, stated that Africa still has great business and investment opportunities that remain untapped.

According to him, the inaugural edition of the forum is an Indonesian government initiative aimed at promoting and strengthening trade and investment relationship between Indonesia and sub-Sahara Africa.

He noted that Africa is a potential market for Indonesian consumer goods such as palm oil, garments, technical cooperation, motorized vehicles which are among several products that could be in demand in markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The forum will generate new ideas aimed at strengthening bilateral trade with Nigeria. We have experienced a promising trade relationship with Nigeria as it has grown by 10 per cent. West African countries are strategic partners in terms of trade and we want to forge stronger bilateral relationships with countries in the continent,” he said.

The organisers of the event, Goldmine Global Services Limited, through its president, Ishmael Balogun, said the forum is geared towards exploring various economic opportunities, to strengthen technical cooperation and enhancing existing partnership between both countries.

In his words, “The forum intends to provide a unique opportunity for around 550 people from the Indonesia business community, high level government officials and other stakeholders to gather, interact and explore ways to establish concrete economic cooperation and expand business networks.”

“We believe the forum would provide a platform for Nigerian and other African businesses to showcase what they have to offer to the Indonesian business community thereby improving the probabilities of attracting inward cooperation and investments in terms of foreign direct investments from Indonesia,” he stressed.